[ EDITORIAL ]

Undercover Sheriff's Detectives: Lawlessness In The Mirror

Published: Saturday, August 31, 2013 at 12:09 a.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, August 31, 2013 at 12:09 a.m.

The most powerful arm of county government — the Polk County Sheriff's Office — inappropriately infiltrated and spied on two civil rights meetings last summer.

The most is known about the first meeting because a public records request made of the Sheriff's Office turned up an email report summarizing the "intel" discovered by two undercover detectives.

The detectives surreptitiously attended a 7 p.m. public meeting of the Poor and Minority Justice Association at the Church of God the Bible Way in Winter Haven on July 26, 2012.

The second meeting was held the following day at Polk State College with the Justice Association and several other organizations, reported The Ledger's Rick Rousos in an Eye on Polk investigative article Friday.

The church's pastor, Clayton Cowart, who also is president of the Justice Association, requested from the Sheriff's Office three years of emails containing his name.

The email produced in response to that request reported the results of the undercover detectives' intelligence gathering.

It said about 25 to 30 people attended the meeting, which lasted 1 hour, 45 minutes.

"During the meeting, residents spoke and told stories of how they believe they were abused by law enforcement," said the email report, on which the sender's name was blocked out. "An example would be that law enforcement was at a residence and searched the residence after the subject speaking advised that they denied consent."

CONSTITUTION

While residents and members of the civil rights group discussed violations of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, they did not know that simultaneously a pair of undercover Polk County Sheriff's detectives were flouting its prime amendment.

The First Amendment guarantees the right of such groups to gather. It protects "the right of the people peaceably to assemble."

Sheriff Grady Judd offers no specific reason for spying on the Justice Association — at a church, no less. Judd said a credible source of the Sheriff's Office reported that the Justice Association was planning some sort of lawlessness for a rally at the Central Polk County Jail.

Such a generality is no basis on which to send two detectives to spy on a civil rights group, and misrepresent themselves and openly lie in discussion with residents in the group.

One of the detectives said he had been mistreated by a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper, Cowart said. "He was pretending to be someone he wasn't."

An undercover operation such as this gives the impression of self-consciousness over criticism of the county jail and juvenile-detention operation. The latter is the subject of a lawsuit brought by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., against the Sheriff's Office in federal court.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office is better than this.

It should prove the point by swearing off unnecessary-and-inappropriate undercover infiltration of public-organization meetings.

<p>The most powerful arm of county government — the Polk County Sheriff's Office — inappropriately infiltrated and spied on two civil rights meetings last summer.</p><p>The most is known about the first meeting because a public records request made of the Sheriff's Office turned up an email report summarizing the "intel" discovered by two undercover detectives.</p><p>The detectives surreptitiously attended a 7 p.m. public meeting of the Poor and Minority Justice Association at the Church of God the Bible Way in Winter Haven on July 26, 2012.</p><p>The second meeting was held the following day at Polk State College with the Justice Association and several other organizations, reported The Ledger's Rick Rousos in an Eye on Polk investigative article Friday.</p><p>The church's pastor, Clayton Cowart, who also is president of the Justice Association, requested from the Sheriff's Office three years of emails containing his name.</p><p>The email produced in response to that request reported the results of the undercover detectives' intelligence gathering.</p><p>It said about 25 to 30 people attended the meeting, which lasted 1 hour, 45 minutes.</p><p>"During the meeting, residents spoke and told stories of how they believe they were abused by law enforcement," said the email report, on which the sender's name was blocked out. "An example would be that law enforcement was at a residence and searched the residence after the subject speaking advised that they denied consent."</p><p>CONSTITUTION</p><p>While residents and members of the civil rights group discussed violations of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, they did not know that simultaneously a pair of undercover Polk County Sheriff's detectives were flouting its prime amendment.</p><p>The First Amendment guarantees the right of such groups to gather. It protects "the right of the people peaceably to assemble."</p><p>Sheriff Grady Judd offers no specific reason for spying on the Justice Association — at a church, no less. Judd said a credible source of the Sheriff's Office reported that the Justice Association was planning some sort of lawlessness for a rally at the Central Polk County Jail.</p><p>Such a generality is no basis on which to send two detectives to spy on a civil rights group, and misrepresent themselves and openly lie in discussion with residents in the group.</p><p>One of the detectives said he had been mistreated by a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper, Cowart said. "He was pretending to be someone he wasn't."</p><p>An undercover operation such as this gives the impression of self-consciousness over criticism of the county jail and juvenile-detention operation. The latter is the subject of a lawsuit brought by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., against the Sheriff's Office in federal court.</p><p>The Polk County Sheriff's Office is better than this.</p><p>It should prove the point by swearing off unnecessary-and-inappropriate undercover infiltration of public-organization meetings.</p>